Sawmill set-works.



No. 874,899. PATENTED 1230.24, 1907.

' J. ROBINSON.

SAWMILL SET WORKS.

APPLIGATION FILED MAR. 21, 1907- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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PATENTED 91:0..24, 1907.

.1. ROBINSON. SAWMILL SET WORKS. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21. 1907.

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JOSEPH ROBINSON, OF OENTRALIA, WASHINGTON.

SAWMILL SET-WORKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, 1907'.

Application filed March 21I 1907. Serial No. 363,578.

T all whom it may concern:

- citizen of the United States, residing at Gentralia, in the county of Lewis and State of WVashington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sawmill Set-VVorks, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to saw-mills and, more particularly, to power actuated devices employed for setting forward the knees upon the carriages to advance the saw-logs to make the successive cuts therefrom and like wise for receding the knees to receive other logs as required.

The object of this invention is the improvement in devices of this character to produce set works which shall be simple and inexpensive in construction, and efficient and durable in operation.

With these and other ends in view, the invention consists in the novel adaptation of mechanism and the combinations thereof as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a saw carriage and an embodiment of my invention; and Fig. 2, a side elevation of the same.

The reference numeral 5 designates a saw carriage having wheels 6 which travel on track rails 7 and is propelled in the forward and rear directions by the usual or suitable driving devices, not shown in the drawings. The carriage is provided with transversely arranged head blocks 8 upon which are re spectively mounted knees 9 so as to be reciprocated toward or away from the plane of the saw and which is here shown as directly effected by screws 10 which individually engage with nuts rigid upon the under side of the knees. Such screws are correspondingly threaded and are rotated in unison by means of miter-gears 11 and 12 provided respectively upon said screws and a set-shaft 13. All of the foregoing are, or may be, as at present employed and the specific purpose of this invention is to impart rotary motion to said shaft in either direction to accomplish the movement of the knees predeterminately both as to amount and direction.

According to my invention I provide upon the shaft 13 a spur gear 14 which meshes continuously with a pinion 15 upon a longitudinal shaft 16 which is operatively connected by a pair of bevel gears 17 with a transverse shaft 18. This shaft has fixedly connected thereon a pulley 19 adapted to be frietionally engaged with either or disengaged from both of the oppositely rotatable driving wheels 20 or 21, of paper or its equivalent, respectively mounted on shafts 20 and 21, disposed upon opposite sides of the shaft 18. 22 is another shaft provided with a gear 23 in mesh with a pinion 24 upon shaft 20. Shaft 22 as well as the shaft 21 are respectively provided with sprocket wheels 26 and 27 arranged in the same plane, longitudinally of the saw carriage. All of the aforesaid shafts are journaled in proper bearings while one of those for the shaft 18, as 28, is made adjustably movable to swing this shaft to engage the pulley thereon with either of said paper frictions. Any of the common types of movable bearings, such as eccentric or sliding boxes, may be here utilized and is actuated to accomplish the swing of its shaft by a reach bar 29 pivotally connecting the box with an arm 30 of, or secured upon, a transverse rod 31 extended outside of the saw carriage whereat would desirably be provided a platform to the carriage for the operator of the set works and who controls the same through a manipulating lever 32 secured to said rod for oscillating the same.

33 is an endless chain, composed desirably of detachable links, passing through a chan nel iron 34 positioned in the same plane and at such an elevation as to carry the chain so as to be engaged by the downwardly directed teeth of the said sprocket wheels. The chain passes about guide sheaves 35 and 36 to below the mill floor 37 and thence about a driving sprocket wheel 38 which is mounted upon a counter shaft 39 and may be driven by any suit able means, as through a power belt upon a pulley 40 carried upon this shaft. This shaft is intended to be rotated continuously during the operations of the saw-c arriage and desirably in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 2 so that, with the gear wheels arranged as illustrated, the knees will be receded at a greater speed than during the advance setting actions thereof.

In practice the chain is not extended the full length of the travel of the carriage and consequently when the latter progresses or is gigged beyond its extremities the sprocket wheels 26 and 27 become disengaged from the chain and in order that they will readily be reengaged upon again encountering the chain the extremities 34 of the channel iron are protruded beyond the adjacent rigid supports, such as 41, to allow such extremities being swerved downwardly to permit the moving chain accommodating its links to register with the presented teeth of these wheels. A spring 42 is, however, advantageously employed under each of the channel ends to resiliently press the same upwardly for maintaining the chain in engagement with the wheels when they have been brought into register and while remaining above the channel.

The operation of the invention may be explained as follows: Assuming that the carriage is in the position illustrated and that both of the sprocket wheels 26 and 27 are engaged with the moving chain 33, then it is evident that the paper frictions 20 and 21, by reason of the shaft of he latter being directly driven while that of the other is driven through intermediate gearing from the shaft 22 which carries the driving element 26, are rotated in opposite directions. In consequence of the foregoing it is further evident that the shaft 18 will be rotated in opposite directions by swinging the shaft 18 to pcripherally engage the pulley 19 thereon with the paper friction having the proper motion to cause the shafts 16 and 13 to transmit through the screws 10 a forward or back ward movement to the knees as may be required. The engagement between either of the paper frictions and the driven pulley 19 is had by the operator through the lever 32 and its connections with the movable bearing 28.

The gears 23 and 24 are desirably propor tioned so as to accelerate the speed of the pulley 19 when the latter is engaged with the .paper friction 20 which communicates the proper motion for receding the knees; while the advancing of the knees is advantageously done at a slower rate that the setting forward of the log to be sawed may be more accurately controlled and which is regulated by any suitable dial as 43, for example, provided with graduations to indicate, by inches and fractional parts thereof, the distance the knees are displaced at any operation. The setting or the receding of the knees is attained only while the carriage is in the aforesaid assumed position, that is above the chain, and consequently when the carriage is to go beyond the chain, as to the log-deck for a saw-log, the knees would be receded before the sprocket wheels 26 and 27 are disengaged from the chain.

Among the advantages derived. from the employment of a set-works embodying my invention is its low, cost of installation, its positi' eness in action, its readiness to respont' to the setting of logs to a very fine degree, and its availability for use with saw carriages and in mills already in operation and without rendering it necessary to alter the equipment already upon the carriage.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is

1. In combination with a saw mill carriage, a chain therebeneath, a set shaft and knees and connections between said shaft and knees, shafts having sprocket wheels to engage said chain, connections between said set shaft and said shafts of the sprocket wheels, and means for movably mounting said carriage whereby the same may be moved in the direction of the length of said chain and beyond the same to cause said sprocket wheels to become disengaged therefrom.

2. The combination with a saw-mill carriage provided with a set-shaft and knees and connections between the shaft and knees, of a chain traveling in a channel, said channel, means for imparting motion to the chain, mechanism for imparting rotary motion in either direction to the set-shaft, said mechanism including two sprocket wheels adapted to engage with the chain and means for movably mounting said carriage whereby the same may be moved beyond the extremities of the chain to cause said sprocket wheels to become disengaged there from.

3. In combination with a saw mill carriage, a chain therebeneath, knees on the carriage, means on the carriage for actuating said knees including a pair of sprocket wheels which project downwardly to engage said chain, means for supporting a part of the uppermost part of said chain, and means for movably mounting said carriage whereby the same may be moved beyond the extremities of said chain supporting means to cause said sprocket wheels to become disengaged therefrom, the supported part of said chain being of sufficient length to engage both of said sprockets at the same time.

4. In combination with a saw mill carriage, an elongated chain supporting element having a horizontal disposition, an endless chain having its uppermost part in said element, knees on the carriage, means for actuating said knees including sprocket wheels which project downwardly to engage said chain, and means to movably mount said carriage whereby the same may be moved to and from said chain to engage and disengage said sprocket wheels with respect to said chain.

5. The combination with a saw-mill carriage provided with a set-shaft and knees and connections between the shaft and the knees, of a chain traveling in a channel, said channel which has its ends resiliently supported, sprocket wheels driven by said chain, a shaft for each said sprocket wheel, a friction wheel upon one of these shafts, the other of these shafts being geared to another shaft provided with a friction wheel, the last named shaft and friction wheel, a pulley dis- I posed between said friction wheels, means to effect the engagement between the pulley and either of the friction wheels, and operative connections between the pulley and the set-shaft.

6. In combination with a saw mill carriage, a chain, said carriage and chain being movable with respect to one another knees on the carriage, means operated by said chain for actuating said knees, a channel receiving the upper portion of said chain, and supporting t e same, and means at the ends ofsaid channel for resiliently supporting the same.

7. In combination with a saw mill carriage, knees thereon, a chain, means operated by said chain for actuating said knees} means for resiliently supporting the operating part of said chain, and means to mount the carriage so that the same may be moved past said chain supporting means to cease operation of the knees.

Intestimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JOSEPH ROBINSON.

Witnesses B. H. RHODES, W. H. Hones. 

